The Infected
The Infected are the antagonists of the films 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later, and the graphic novel, 28 Days Later: The Aftermath. They are, as their name suggests, people infected with the Rage Virus. They play a much larger role in the sequel, as opposed to the first film. Info Rage does not directly cause the death of its host, but because the host is solely focused on infecting or killing the uninfected, it causes those infected to become disinterested in self-nourishment which will eventually cause death by starvation. Since the virus causes those infected to act with no regard for self-preservation, they will not act to evade mortal danger, such as fire, gunshots, or chemical gas. Though the Infected possess a disregard for pain, the number of major body parts severed will affect their mobility, as shown in 28 Weeks Later, when an Infected moved very slowly compared to other Infected after its arm and shoulder were severed by helicopter blades. The Infected experience spasms in the extremities, and their irises become blood red. They also bleed from their eyes and vomit copious amounts of infectious blood. It has also been shown that the Infected use their sense of smell to find the uninfected and that trace amounts of products such as perfume or soap will attract them to the source. The Infected are distinct from cinematic zombies in that they are not the reanimated dead. Also, films such as the Night of the Living Dead, Return of the Living Dead, and Resident Evil series portray zombies as creatures that desire to consume living flesh. By contrast, while the Infected will attempt to bite their victims, it is usually as a means of either killing them (often by severing the main arteries in their neck) or spreading the virus. They are not shown to ingest any organic material, apparently due to said disregard for nourishment. Another key difference is that the Rage-infected victims are still living human beings and as such can be killed by weapons and other means that are fatal to uninfected humans. Also, while the standard cinematic zombie is depicted as a slow and clumsy creature, the Infected are very strong and fast-moving, thanks to their adrenaline-enhanced stamina. Unlike other zombies, the Infected, while losing most of their higher levels of intelligence, are highly attuned to their surroundings, being able to navigate over and around obstacles to otherwise unseen targets. Whereas most other zombies will simply try to approach non-infected individuals from the most direct route, often failing repeatedly. The Infected in a similar situation will simply run into the building, often destroying doors and windows, and go through the structure to reach the designated target. This is first seen in 28 Days Later, when in the church scene, when Jim is fleeing the balcony; the Infected beneath the balcony, rather than try to climb up onto the balcony and follow Jim from there, go through the doors into the church's corridors to try and intercept Jim. This can be seen again in 28 Weeks Later when one of the Delta Team snipers is mauled by two Infected on top of a large building. Abilities The Infected still have the same level of, if not increased, mobility as they did before becoming infected. Both films have also demonstrated that they do possess a rudimentary sense of spatial awareness. In 28 Weeks Later, the character Don Harris is shown to be able to manipulate such simplistic objects as blunt-force weapons. The Infected can be killed by conventional means though killing an infected human may be made more difficult by their adrenaline enhanced strength, endurance, and disregard for pain along with their own well being. The Infected also gain heightened senses of sight, hearing, and smell. In both movies, the Infected prefer to be in shaded to pitch black areas compared to bright light. This can be seen in 28 Days Later, as the survivors would rather move during day light, and the Infected which chased the survivors through the underground tunnel did not not follow them into the daylight, as well as the night attacks on Worsley House. In 28 Weeks later, the Infected, in particular Don Harris, preferred to lurk in pitch black areas. In 28 Weeks Later, the Infected followed Andy, Tammy, Doyle and Scarlet into the subway during the night and only kept the physical chase up during nocturnal hours. It is unknown how the Infected escaped from the subway to Regent's Park at dawn; presumably they took more dark underground tunnels from the subway to the Park. Don had little trouble roaming around in the abandoned subway, whereas Tammy, Andy and Scarlett needed night vision in order to navigate through the darkness and dried out corpses. The Infected are also extremely sensitive to light and noise, as in 28 Days Later, Jim only had a candle lit, but this was sufficient enough to draw the attention of two Infected. While the Infected do eventually die from lack of nutrition, the Rage Virus seems to slow down their metabolism to such an extent that the Infected are able to last up to 8 weeks before becoming too weak to move. The process may speed up or slow down depending on how active the Infected are. In 28 Days Later, before Jim alerted several Infected in the church, they were lying motionlessly amongst a large amount of corpses, perhaps to conserve energy, or due to lack of any non-infected individuals around. Or it could be because of their nocturnal nature, or even two or all three of these reasons. Notable Infected *Animal Freedom Front activists *Infected Priest *Infected Child (deceased) *Frank (deceased) *Private Mailer *Private Clifton *Warren *Liam *Karen (deceased) *Geoff *Jacob (deceased) *Alice Harris (Carrier, deceased) *Don Harris (deceased) *Andy Harris (Carrier) Gallery ''28 Days Later 28DaysInfected01.jpg|An animal activist's red eyes shortly after infection InfectedPriest.jpg|Infected Priest 28DaysInfected02.jpg|A burning Infected chasing Jim 28DaysInfected03.jpg|Infected Bridges, one of Jim's closest neighbours 28DaysInfected04.jpeg|A horde of Infected chasing Frank's taxi 28DaysInfected05.jpg|Infected Child 28DaysInfected06.jpg|Private Mailer spewing blood 28DaysInfected07.jpg|Infected Private Mailer 28DaysInfected08.jpg|Mailer searching for victims InfectDMAyler.jpg|Mailer killing Private Bell StarvInfected.jpg|Starved Infected 28 Days Later: The Aftermath AftermathInfected01.jpg|Infected Warren InfectedLeam.jpg|Infected Liam AftermathInfected02.jpg AftermathInfected03.jpg AftermathInfected04.jpg AftermathInfected05.jpg AftermathInfected06.jpg AftermathInfected07.jpg AftermathInfected08.jpg|Starving Infected 28 Weeks Later 28WeeksInfected01.jpg|An Infected breaking into the cottage 28WeeksInfected02.jpg|An Infected spots Karen whilst outside the cottage 28WeeksInfected03.png|An Infected infecting Karen 28WeeksInfected04.jpg|Infected Karen 28WeeksInfected05.jpg 28WInfectednWindw.jpg|An Infected breaking into the cottage from the kitchen window 28WeeksInfected06.jpg|Infected Geoff InfectAttackCottage.jpg 28WeeksInfected07.jpg 28WL InfectedAttackCotAj.jpg 28weeks-1-.jpg 28WeeksInfected08.jpg 28WeeksInfected09.jpg|Don escapes the Infected Infecjacob.jpg|Infected Jacob 28WeeksInfected10.jpg|The Rage Virus overwhelms Don Harris 28WeeksInfected14.jpg|Don killing Alice Infected Don.jpg|Infected Don Harris 28WeeksInfected15.jpg|Infected soldier InfecteDonAttack.jpg|Don spreads the Infection InfecTarget.jpg 28weekslater-1-.jpg|Infected woman 28WeeksInfected16.jpg 28WeeksInfected17.jpg 28WeeksInfected18.jpg|Infected Don about to attack his daughter Infected in Paris.jpg|The Infected in Paris Trivia * Ethan Van Sciver, Green Lantern writer and artist, officially stated in Issue #2 of Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps that the Red Lanterns, people wearing red power rings that spew dangerously acidic blood, were inspired by the Infected of ''28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later. He also mentioned that they were his favorite Lantern Corps. *The Flood from the Doctor Who episode The Waters of Mars are similar to the Infected in that they are both humans infected with a virus, and both produce copious amounts of infectious blood/water from their mouths. *People who are observant will noticed that the Infected always go after their former friends/family (now turned enemies) Examples of this are: **In 28 Weeks Later, Donald leaves Alice to die in the cottage; when his children later resuce Alice from their old London home, in quarantine Alice (unkowingly) Infects Don, and Don kills her. This leads to Donald having some reasoning skills, or it could be a coincidence. It also leads to the belief that the Infected are more agressive towards Carriers, possibly because they know that they cannot Infect Carriers. **Mailer, the Infected that was chained in Worsley House in 28 Days Later, attacks the soldiers that captured him first before proceeding to attack Jim, Selena and Hannah. **In 28 Weeks Later, the Infected Donald Harris appears to be stalking his children. *The only Infected animals to be see (so far) are the chimpanzees from 28 Days Later. apart from that no other infected animals are seen. Oddly there are not that many animals around since the Outbreak started. Not even a stray dog is seen (though there are still some horses, swans, pigeons and dogs, as shown in 28 Days and Weeks Later). However, it is probable most animals were killed by the Infected due to their fits of rage and also due to the fact that only primates (humans and monkeys) are able to carry the Virus. It is probable if the Virus hit an animal it would just die, as Rage can only use primates as its hosts. *In 28 Weeks Later, the Infected have started becoming diurnal, when more survivors are likely to be found, forcing survivors to take cover in the darkness. This is the exact opposite of their behaviour in 28 Days Later. The reason for them coming out during day time is not explained anywhere, and it could have been overlooked, or it could just be their sheer desperation to find more uninfected victims. Another possibility is that people infected do not become nocturnal until some time after infection. This is supported by the fact that most of the Infected seen in Days had presumably been infected for weeks, whereas all of the Infected in Weeks had only been infected for days at the most. *In 28 Days Later, the Infected - most noticeably the priest and Private Clifton - are shown to suffer from strong spasms. However, in 28 Weeks Later, none of the Infected appear to suffer from these spasms. *The Infected appear to have a slower metabolism than normal, being able to last up to two months before succumbing to starvation. However, considering the amount of adrenaline the Infected use to try and infect or kill the uninfected, this should be the other way round; their metabolism should speed up rather than slow down. One possible reason for this is that the Rage Virus alters its hosts' metabolism, allowing them to last much longer without any food or water. Another possible explanation is that when an Infected bites an uninfected victim, it unintentionally ingests some of the victim's blood and flesh. Examples of intelligence by the Infected: *The Infected Donald is somehow able to track and follow his children and is also able to evade the napalm strike by taking cover underground. He is also able to operate basic machinery such as using his ID card to escape an isolation cell. *The kid from Sandford was possibly spared so that he would, while trying to evade the Infected, unintentionally lure them to other uninfected. There is no chance that an eight year old child who is four foot high could have run five miles while staying ahead of the Infected. It is only after the kid enters the survivors' cottage that the Infected attack. *When he was released into the mansion by Jim, the infected Mailer appeared to follow Jim around the mansion without attacking him, almost as though he knew that Jim was deliberately leading him to potential victims. External Links *List of Fictional Diseases - Wikipedia.org * The Infected - Zombiepedia Category:Infected Category:Infected